Jeden245

Hi there. Thanks for asking about tonight class. It was a much more laid back affair compaired to Monday and was no where near as intense in terms of the excerise intensity and wa much more karate focused. We started with a warm up consisting of a wide range of stretches and jogging to get the heart rate going. The Sensei, who was incredibly engaging, started off by showing us the correct basic stance for shukokai. He made a point to visit everybody in the class and correct them where they were going wrong. Then he showed us a few punches ( all names of the stance and punches, kicks etc have fallen out of my head so I do apologise but I guess I'll pick them up as I go.) We then Partnered up and began to work on a series of moves staring with a lunging punch while our partner blocked, from there he added another move into the routine and so on and so forth until we had a nice solid combination. Again I apologise for forgetting the names but he did explain them in detail. This went on for the majority of the hour until he started katas. He asked the class to demonstrate red belt kata ( i sat out and observed) i believe, then orange belt kata the. Went onto blue then black with anybody who didn't know the next dropping out. All in all I much preferred it as a class purely because I felt u learned something and hadn't only taken part in some sort of boxercise class. They also hold regular competitions and have Designated Kata classes on Thursdays afterwards and also hold Kobudo classes as well as advanced shukokai classes. It is a lot more family orientated with a big mix of people from old to young male to female. The main thing was the Sensei was a lot more engaging than Mondays and I feel I could learn a lot from him. I also love the style of shukokai. The only thing that makes me not sure is that Mondays class was so hat physically, maybe that's what I need to help me shift the weight. All in all I'm leaning towards tonight's purely on the fact I felt I learned Karate tonight and the style is so nice and fluid compaired to a more hard rigid shotokan. Apologies for the typos again my phone is terrible.. Thanks

So I went along to a trial shotokan Karate lesson tonight for the first time and if anybody has seen my previous thread you will know I have been worrying about my ability to do Karate due to my size and needless to say I ache from head to toe. The training session started out with 12 laps of the gymnasium, swiftly followed by running halfway across the gym doing 10 sit ups then running to the far side and doing 10 squats. This was repeated 5 times. Then the same but doing sit ups followed by star jumps. After that we paired up and did 15 reps of sit ups touching our partners shoulders. This was then followed by 15 reps of leg lifts up to our partners hands and repeated twice. By this point I was exhausted but kept pushing myself as hard as possible and was massively encouraged by my partner (who was a black belt) to not quit and do anything I could, even if it was one rep but the main thing was to just just not give up!!!! After this we got into lines of 4 each with 4 people behind the next. We ran to the person holding the pads and hit with 4 punches. Then ran back. We repeated this about 5 times each. Then it was 4 punches left right left right kick kick another 5 times. Then the same again with a roundhouse kick added to the end. Once this was complete we paired up again and proceeded to punch at our partner who blocked then our partners repeated by punching at us. This was then repeated using kicks. While we blocked. Then kicked back. Mawashageri? Possibly?? After this we lined up and did a few combinations. Then proceeded to warm down. I can honestly say I've never been so tired in my entire life and it really hit home to me just how unfit I am and have much weight I have to lose. This was cemented by me vomiting in the car park afterwards lol and even though I'm so tired I can barely type correctly I feel fantastic I gave my all and that's all I could have hoped for. My only concern with the class is the Sensei didn't really talk about the dojo etiquette or explain and of the moves we were doing or the names. I literally have no idea what I did apart from an intense workout with some martial arts thrown in. Is this normal? should I feel like I've learned something from my first lesson? Or will it all come with more time. Apologies for the wall of text and even bigger apolgies if I was spelling like a complete idiot, I'm just exhausted lol. That was Shotokan, Shukokai on Thursday at another dojo!! Oh joy

Thanks for the advice mate. Much appreciated indeed. What's the competitive karate scene like in the uk?

Is there any reason you recommend these styles for me over shukokai? I have researched heavily and the choices are pretty slim for my area regarding different styles.

Just wanted to add that I really want to learn the values and principles that Karate teaches as well as the combat side of things and that is a pretty big thing for me wanting to find the correct style and dojo. I suppose I won't know if they play a big part in this dojos teaching until I've been there a while.

Thanks very much for the advice guys and the kind words of encouragement. I think my main concerns regarding my size is looking like a total idiot more than the worry of being able to actually do the training correctly as I'm not a grossly fat 300 pounder if that makes sense lol. Plus I am only 27 so plenty of time in my life to lose weight and do well at Karate. As for the style of karate shukokai and shotokan are the only ones that are available to me within my immediate area of the uk (midlands) the dojo I have I am going to check out is with a guy called Jason smith who is a 5th dan and has trained with sensei Kimura, although being a novice I'm not sure how much weight that holds so I can't really comment on that being a valid enough reason to train there. I must say though he spent an entire hour almost chatting to me on the phone upon my initial enquiry and really seems like a genuine, friendly guy who will do his upmost to help me reach my potential. I just want to be 100% sure that shukokai is the style that I will get the most out of long term both socially and competitively, if I choose to go down the competative path. The website for the club is http://www.karate-uk.com/page2.htm if anybody is curious as to which I am going to be having the trial lesson at.

Hi everyone. So after a long time of thinking and researching I have decided to take up Karate this year and have a few wuestions I'd like to ask if possible. First off I have been looking at dojos in my local area and am going for a trial lesson with a dojo that practises shukokai, now I know very little about this style of karate and wanted to get people's opinion on it and find out the main differences between that and shotokan. My father was a 3rd dan in shotokan and unfortunately we no longer speak so I am unable to ask his advice on these concerns I have. I would like something that has a good level of competitive competitions once I get to that stage ( a long way off I know) but I would like to make the right decisions now rather than regret them later. My other main concern is my weight. I am around 6"2 and just shy of 300 pounds. I would like to think I am not in horrible shape and carry the weight fairly well as I did a lot of weightlifting and was a great athlete once upon a time. Unfortunately those days have gone but I know that once super fit competative guy is in there screaming to get out. Will somebody my size struggle to partake in karate and will I even be able to find a GI that fits as I am such a big guy?? As I said I have researched this a lot and it is something I determined to progress in but would like any advice regarding my oncerns that you may have or any advice in general to set me on the correct path. Apologies for the big post and I thank anybody who takes the time to respond.